Free program scheduled on civil rights project

A free program on the 1963 Citizenship Education Project will be held at 10:30 today at the Warrenton Memorial Library.

The project conducted workshops in Warren and Franklin counties on voter registration and voting procedures in rural churches where few African-Americans were registered to vote at the time.

Members of the project, including 14 college students and three leaders, were the first interracial group to live together in Warren County.

Eva Clayton, a resident of Warrenton, initiated the project. She teamed with rural ministers to sponsor the workshops. She went on to become the first African-American woman from North Carolina to be elected to Congress.

Clayton will speak at the program, along with Judy Beil Vaughan, author of "A Quiet Little Civil Rights Project"; Sidney E. Dunston, who participated in the project and is now a Franklin County commissioner; Gavin Wright, original member of the project who is currently a professor of economics at Stanford University; Ray Gavins, professor of history at Duke University; and Sherman Johnson, a local radio journalist who will serve as master of ceremonies.